Cooling performance of a nanofluid flow in a heat sink microchannel with axial conduction effect

Abstract

In this work, the forced convection of a nanofluid flow in a microscale duct has been investigated numerically. The governing equations have been solved utilizing the finite volume method. Two different conjugated domains for both flow field and substrate have been considered in order to solve the hydrodynamic and thermal fields. The results of the present study are compared to those of analytical and experimental ones, and a good agreement has been observed. The effects of Reynolds number, thermal conductivity and thickness of substrate on the thermal and hydrodynamic indexes have been studied. In general, considering the wall affected the thermal parameter while it had no impact on the hydrodynamics behavior. The results show that the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on the increasing of normalized local heat transfer coefficient is more efficient in thick walls. For higher Reynolds number, the effect of nanoparticle inclusion on axial distribution of heat flux at solid–fluid interface declines. Also, less end losses and further uniformity of axial heat flux lead to an increase in the local normalized heat transfer coefficient.